The
Reserve Bank of India has
warned that the widening
fiscal deficit and demands
on India’s creaking
infrastructure could
threaten the economic growth
rate and potential. While
the Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram has promised
active steps to reign in the
mushrooming deficit, his
options are limited by the
continued intransigence of
communist allies to the
Government.

India
and South Africa signed a
deal to develop a
relationship in merchant
shipping and related
maritime transport on the
basis of mutual reciprocity
and sovereign equality. The
agreement is valid is 5
years initially and will
reviewed and renewed on a
yearly basis unless one of
the parties want its
discontinuance. India is
trying to expand its
business, economic,
diplomatic, and military
influence in Africa. While
African nations vocally
endorsed India as the Chair
of the Asia-Africa Forum
last year, they refused to
support India’s bid on the
United Nations. India has
since increased its economic
efforts in Sudan, Nigeria,
and South Africa but is
strangely not responding to
increasing calls by the
United Nations on the
drought disaster waiting to
happen in Kenya.

The
Sonia Déjà vu
After pursuing a path to
protect its leader Sonia
Gandhi from ouster and
disgrace through an
ordinance that would
probably be struck down in
the courts, the Congress
Party got a jolt when their
leader in a master political
move resigned from the
Parliament. <More>

Environment,
Health and Education

Health
Minister Anbumani Ramdoss
announced that India would achieve
its United Nations set targets for
the control of Tuberculosis (TB)
by April 2006.The UN required India to be
able to identify 70% of the TB
cases and treat 85% of such cases
by the end of 2005. He also said
that country wills double its
budget to USD 260 million (up by
56% from last year) to fight this
disease. India has the largest
number of TB patients amounting to
20% of the world’s total. The
Government’s Observed Treatment
Services program launched to cover
1 billion people is the largest
health care program in the world
and has brought the number of
infected from 2 million to 1.7
million and the death rate from
425,000 to 400,000 annually.

The
UN Environment Program (UNEP) says
that the avian flu may affect over
80% of known bird species and 54
threatened species like fish
eagles, rabbits, otters, etc. and
be a larger risk than imagined.
Since the only way to eradicate
this virus from domestic poultry
is widespread culling, protein
starved societies may turn to
“bush meat” and thereby
increase the “unacceptable”
pressure on wild pigs,
chimpanzees, and apes. Predators
losing their natural prey to human
exploitation may resort to eating
infected meat and the disease
spread to rats and mice. When rats
carry the disease, it could easy
mutate with Leptospirosis and
cause widespread havoc among
humans. UNEP experts say that the
highly evolved olfactory systems
in some of these mammals may make
them more susceptible to the H5N1
virus.

Europe’s
last running secessionist group
fighting for a piece of Spain
and South Western France for a
Basque homeland, ETA, declared a
permanent ceasefire in its fight
against both those countries.
ETA had earlier issued 10
ceasefires but only on this one
had it used the word
“permanent.” Spain reacted
cautiously while France declared
a self-congratulatory victory.
After 40 years of war that
claimed the lives of 850 people
and destruction of property
valued at USD 20 billion the ETA
was the most durable terrorist
group that turned Spaniard from
Basque and even Basque against
Basque. Analysts are skeptical
about ETA’s promise to give up
its way of life, which was
violence and extortion just as
Irish Republic Army (IRA)
continued to indulge in them
even when they were negotiation
with the Government. India faces
similar challenges with internal
Naxalites, Kashmiri terrorist
groups, North Eastern
secessionist bands, and
pan-Islamic terrorists. India
also has the additional burden
of negotiating with Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and China even while
they continue to support
terrorism in India with
impunity. Pan-Islamic terrorism
is the most dangerous form
because of its potential to
create inter-communal violence
leading to social anarchy.
Recognizing this increasing
number of Islamic clerics has
issued fat was (religious
dictates) calling all violence
“un-Islamic.” Recently, one
thousand delegates said “bomb
blasts, plane hijackings,
massacres or any such activity
where people are killed or which
poses a threat to any religious
organization and destroys peace
of the nation is condemned in
Islam.”

Lt.
Col. Batra, spokesperson for the
armed forces, said that seizure
of large caches of arms,
ammunition, and explosives from
different parts of the Kashmir
Valley “does not augur well
for the peace process.”
Kashmiris, long disenchanted by
violence and terrorism, have
been increasingly helping the
army identify, engage, and
capture or kill terrorists.
Recently, the army recovered a
large cache of 9 kilograms (Kgs)
of RDX, 19 kgs of other
explosives, RPG rocket fuses,
RPG bombs, Chinese made mines,
plastic explosives, anti-tank
Improvised Explosive Devices (IED),
hand grenades, AK-47 assault
rifles, radio sets, pistols. The
wide variety of weaponry only
suggests the sophistication of
the terrorists and this
experience can only be obtained
from training with experience
defense or intelligence sources.
India accuses the Pakistan
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
and Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf of not dismantling the
terror network. While Musharraf
is quick to come up with
“out-of-box ideas” to get
the Indian army out of the
Kashmir Valley, he has been
accused by many of over
promising and under-delivering
on terrorism. Western media had
counseled US President George
Bush not to trust Musharraf,
which reflected his disdain on
the Pakistani establishment
during his visit early this
month. Interestingly, political
actors from the state who
visited Pakistan recently wanted
India to respond to
Musharraf’s proposals.
Musharraf himself has threatened
to take “steps backward” if
India does not respond to his
non-starter ideas.

United
Nations Security Council (UNSC)
members continued backroom debates
on how to handle Iran’s nuclear
program. India reiterated that it
would not support the French and
Britain draft reprimanding Iran.
It said that it supported the
Russian initiative to enrich
uranium in Russia for exclusive
use by Iran and insisted that
there must be diplomatic solution.

Iraqi
Police accused the US troops of a
"clear and perfect
crime" saying that they
killed an entire family of 11,
including 5 children and 4 women,
when a patrol came under attack
leading to the death of one of the
members at Ishaqi. The house was
later blown up to conceal the
killing. The Time Magazine
reported the killing of civilians
in Haditha in November when a
patrol went on a rampage after a
member was killed by a roadside
bomb. The US Army says that only 4
people were killed in Ishaqi and
said it has launched an
investigation. Iraqi population
and analysts accuse the US Army of
doing little and not disciplining
its soldiers for blatant human
rights violations. Even in cases
where disciplinary action is
initiated, they say that offenders
are let off with minimal
punishment.

The
Bill on National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme seeks to provide
guaranteed employment to one
member of every rural household
for at least 100 days a year for a
minimum wage of Rs.60 per day.
Out of 260 million poor people in
the country, about 200 million
poor people are in rural areas.
People in 45% rural India do not
get work for six months in a year.